Weak (grammatical term)In Germanic languages, weak verbs are those verbs that have a regular inflection, in which the stem of a word is not changed by ablaut. They contrast with the strong verbs, that exhibit these changes.In most Germanic languages, the preterites and past participles of weak verbs are distinguished by a dental suffix, an inflection that contains a /t/ or /d/ sound. Not all weak verbs are regular verbs in English; some have been made irregular by eclipsis or contraction, such as hear ~ heard; while others are merely irregular due to the eccentricities of English spelling, such as lay ~ laid. |
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